Vicki Harvey, Opunake's most famous transsexual, says she has been declined her sex-change surgery "due to the existence of contra medical conditions".

The 73-year-old ex-soldier, who made international news this month with her revelations in the Taranaki Daily News would not elaborate.

In her original interview, she admitted to being addicted to tobacco and gambling and said she had been under psychiatric care for self-harm.

In an email to the Daily News she said: "Thankfully, I live in a town where who you are is more important than what you are. I have been overwhelmed by the good wishes of those who have come to know me in the short time I have resided here in Opunake.

"My brother and sister transsexuals have no choice to be other than we have been created, no matter how long we have been forced to deny our gender identity. There have been many of us unable to cope with our own, and society's, confusion that have sought release in death.

"I can only hope that you and your bigoted correspondents have not driven some young persons who are struggling to accept themselves to attempt to end their lives on account of your using what I was led to believe to be a human interest item as a political weapon."

Health Minister Annette King stated in a letter to the Taranaki Daily News on August 27 that the claim in the original interview with Ms Harvey that the Government would fund the sex-change operation was "completely untrue".

The person concerned had not even had a clinical assessment.

The story said that Ms Harvey had an appointment for an assessment in November by the psycho-surgical team in Christchurch and, if approved, she hoped to have the operation next year.